Cited by 171Social and Intergroup PsychologyDeception detection and forensic psychologyPsychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 39 of the 39 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 39 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Suspicion and Dispositional Inference

Open access
Hilton, James L., Fein, Steven, Miller, Dale T.·1993·Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Abstract

The role of suspicion in the dispositional inference process is examined. Perceivers who are led to become suspicious of the motives underlying a target's behavior appear to engage in more active and thoughtful attributional analyses than nonsuspicious perceivers. Suspicious perceivers resist drawing inferences from a target's behavior that reflect the correspondence bias (or fundamental attribution error), and they consciously deliberate about questions of plausible causes and categorizations of the target's behavior They are, however, quite willing to make strong correspondent inferences about the target if they learn additional contextual information that renders alternative explanations for the target's behavior less plausible. Implications of these findings for current multiple-stage models of the dispositional inference process are discussed, and the need for these and other models to give more consideration to the social nature of social perception is asserted.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Suspicion—questioning whether a target’s behavior reflects genuine motives or ulterior ones—leads perceivers to suspend dispositional inferences and resist the correspondence bias. Suspicious perceivers remain willing to make strong correspondent inferences when later contextual information disambiguates the target’s behavior, suggesting multiple-stage models underweight the social and motivational nature of social perception.

Key findings

  • In Fein, Hilton, and Miller’s (1990) Studies 1 and 2, subjects in no-choice conditions inferred that an essay author’s true attitude matched the position argued, whereas subjects in ulterior-motives conditions drew no person inferences from the speech.
  • Suspicion is not mere conservatism: suspicious subjects wrote significantly more open-ended explanations and, in Fein (1991, Studies 1 and 2), were significantly more likely to report attribution-relevant thoughts than nonsuspicious subjects.
  • Suspicious perceivers use behavior selectively: in Fein, Hilton, and Miller (1989), subjects would not infer whether a suitor loved a wealthy widow or was after her money, but they did infer that he strongly wanted to marry her.
  • When later information disambiguates behavior, suspicious perceivers make strong correspondent inferences: Fein et al. (1990, Study 3) and Fein et al. (1989) found that additional sincerity or honesty/greed cues led to correspondent inferences about attitude, love, or greed.
  • Suspicion can produce cynicism toward expectancy-disconfirming behavior: in Fein (1991, Studies 6 and 7), subjects rated a student’s cultural interests more negatively and an ex-convict less trustworthy when the target was aware of the negative expectancy; in Study 8, they revised expectations for hard-to-fake analytical performance but not for interpersonal style.

Methods

  • Design: theoretical and conceptual review article, not a new empirical study; it integrates prior experiments on suspicion and dispositional inference.
  • Data or sample: reviewed experiments use assigned-essay, courtship-of-wealthy-widow, fellowship-interview, and ex-convict job-candidate paradigms; no sample sizes or statistical values are reported in the provided text.
  • Main analysis: narrative synthesis and critique of multiple-stage dispositional inference models, including anchor-and-adjustment accounts and Trope’s model, with a proposed distinction between diagnostic and calibrative discounting.

Limitations

  • The paper does not include a formal limitations section. It states that current multiple-stage models do not clearly account for suspicion and calls for models that better recognize the social nature of social perception.
  • Evident from the text: the argument relies on prior studies, including an unpublished doctoral dissertation (Fein, 1991) and a conference paper (Fein, Hilton, & Miller, 1989), and reports no new data or numeric effect sizes.
  • Evident from the text: as a theoretical review, its causal claims depend on the reviewed experiments rather than on new manipulations reported here.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/0146167293195003

Cites

39 of 39 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

44 Own interpretation · 19 Sources not found · 10 No full text of the sources · 8 Own result · 2 Not checked yet · 1 Own method

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 19
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 8
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
27 of 27
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Stereotypes are often both public and negative.

    “because stereotypes are often both public and negative”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The negative aspects of stereotypes are often extremely difficult to disconfirm.

    “It is clear that the negative aspects of stereotypes are often extremely difficult to disconfirm.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    People may be quite concerned about being duped or appearing to be a sucker in the face of an actor influenced by ulterior motives.

    “Although suspicion may be especially likely to trigger thoughtful diagnostic discounting because people may be quite concerned about being duped or appearing to be a”
3 of 3

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Citations

Cites

Show all 36 references

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Fein, S. (1991). The suspicious mind. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan.
  2. Gilbert, D. T., 1989, Unintended thought, 189
  3. Hilton, J. L., 1990, Review International de Psychologie Sociale, 4, 519

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Hilton, J. L., Fein, S., & Miller, D. T.
Affiliations
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • Williams College (US)
  • Princeton University (US)
Venue
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Published
1993-10
Volume
19
Issue
5
Pages
501-512
ISSN
  • 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-7433
OpenAlex
W2079398527
Cited by
171
References
36
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
FWCI
9.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
  • Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Deception detection and forensic psychology
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Keywords
suspicion, dispositional inference, fundamental attribution error, correspondence bias, attributional analysis, social perception, contextual information, causal explanation, categorization

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